Tulsan is killed in attack by tiger

Tulsa World ^ | 4-3-03 | Tulsa World Local Desk

[OKSooner]

A Tulsa woman died Wednesday afternoon after a tiger severed her arm at an animal park, causing a fatal loss of blood. Lynda Brackett a VOLUNTEER at Safari Joe's Rock Creek Exotic Animal Park near Adair, died at a Tulsa Hospital, park onwer Joe Estes said.

Broacket had six years' experience as a large-cat trainer and had been employed by him previously at his former Sapulpa and Broken Arrow locations, Estes said.

He said she was helping another cat handler and was not in the cage at the time of the attack. "She was outside of the cage", he said. "There's little slots where you can slide water in."

Estes said he was not present at the time of the attack but understood that Brackett was giving the tiger water when it attacked her. The cat reported grabbed Brackett's leg and pulled her close to the cage before pulling her arm into the cage and severing it, he said.

Estes said Brackett was able to walk away from the cage after the attack.

"You make mistakes with animals like that, and it can cost you your life, and that's what happened... We try and stress that.", he said.

Area emergency personnel resopned about 2:30 pm and worked on the woman for more than an hour before she was flown to the Tulsa hospital.

Estes said the tiger belongs to the International Wildlife Center of Texas, which is leasing one of his park's buildings. The center was formerly near Corsicana, Texas, but has relocated.

Whether the tiger will be euthanized probably will e decided tomorrow by its owners and the state Department of Wildlife Conservation, Estes said.

His park, three miles north of Adair, is not yet open to the public. HE said he took it over last year.

"We're trying to redo it and get it up to standards so we can get it open to the public," he said.

In addition to tigers, the park has such exotic animals as lions, wolves, alligators and snakes and includes A CHILDREN'S PETTING ZOO.

It offers educational and entertainment programs for schools, fairs and special occasions.

Estes said he closed Safari Joe's in Sapulpa about a year and a half ago and that the bigger park in Adair will be open in June or July.

He previously had similar locations in Broken Arrow and Skiatook.

[OKSooner]

This one's definitely from the "I really wish I'd been wrong about this deal but it was only a matter of time" file. Some might make a Darwin nomination out of it as well, but it's not OKSooner's place to do that. The towns mentioned are all small towns surrounding Tulsa, Oklahoma that this A$$hole had been run out of by reasonable people. Too bad they couldn't have all done it at the same time. This had been discussed some time ago on FR. OKSooner's opinion is that this dude is a maniac with a fetish for carnivores. He once had a big billboard between Tulsa and Sapulpa showing himself carrying a tiger cub "shepherd" style on his shoulders with this really maniacal look in his eyes. The caption?

"Come play with the tigers."

[OKSooner]

Ping. No word on which Tulsa Hospital was involved, BTW.

[OKSooner]

Ping.

[theDentist]

Another unexpected response to the old line: "Pull my finger".

[RichInOC]

No!!! Bad kitty.

Did they get the arm back?

[shadowman99]

It's a brainless wild animal. What will killing it accomplish?

[Carry_Okie]

I'm going to quote this out of order so that it makes sense:

Estes said he was not present at the time of the attack but understood that Brackett was giving the tiger water when it attacked her. "She was outside of the cage", he said. "There's little slots where you can slide water in." The cat reported grabbed Brackett's leg and pulled her close to the cage before pulling her arm into the cage and severing it, he said.

I take it this was a cage where the cat could take a swipe between the bars.

Very stupid. The family should sue both the designer and the owner.

[OKSooner]

I'd just as soon send the critter back to the wild. It's the supposedly sane and cognizant human who created the situation that oughta be dealt with, IMO.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Most likely, there was an inner fence and an outer fence, with visitors kept beyond the outer fence so none of them can try to pet "kitty". The inner fence would keep the cat confined, but allow workers to handle routine things like food and water without entering the enclosure (and also allow for the outer fence gate to be closed before the inner one was opened when workers did need to enter the enclosure). Most zoos I've seen have some sort of double barrier system for dangerous animals.

[Carry_Okie]

The inner fence would keep the cat confined,

It clearly didn't. There are all sorts of ways to get food and water in and out with safety, including double locking chambers or cellular enclosures (wait for kitty to go out, close the door, and enter the room at the other door).

Bad design.

[Tamar1973]

It's a brainless wild animal. What will killing it accomplish?

Now that it has the taste of human blood, it will never be remotely controllable. It's a public safety issue, not a punishment issue. Releasing it into the wild wouldn't solve the problem either as even in the wild, it might meet up with humans.

[U S Army EOD]

I just thought of a place to confine Saddam and his sons should we capture him. Any chance of sending this tiger down to Gitmo??

[sticker]

"It's a brainless wild animal. What will killing it accomplish?"

I think he was talking about the person that owned the wild animal park.

[VOA]

You gotta' be careful out there.

IIRC, some homeless fellow got mauled to death by a group (two or more) of
pit bulls in Tulsa a few years ago.

And didn't some zoo worker lose most of an arm to a tapir (sp?; animal from
Southeast Asia) in OKC or Tulsa a few years ago?

Animals or "animals that walk on two feet"...
you've got to be on the outlook all the time.

[OKSooner]

That's true about the homeless dude in North Tulsa not long ago. Don't recall about the zoo incident.

[Tax-chick]

The tapir attack was at the OKC zoo. The woman lost an arm. She wasn't the tapir's (kind of an anteater looking thing, only with teeth, from South America) regular keeper, and she got between the mother tapir and her baby.

Is Safari Joe's the one that comes to the city carnivals and stuff with wild animals? It seems like several outfits use the same name. We have something here in Broken Arrow, but the article didn't mention Broken Arrow ...

[OKSooner]

Yeah. I've seen 'em at "The large department store at Southroads" of all places, with constrictor snakes for the kiddies to pet. And yeah, the dude started in BA but was run out of town by supposedly right-thinking people who said "my kid isn't gonna be first." And on and on in Sapulpa, Skiatook, etc, etc.

[China Clipper]

I dunno.... maybe prevent it from doing it to someone else?

Kill it.....

[Tax-chick]

Wow! We'll be more careful next Rooster Day (Broken Arrow's town carnival).

My kids love the snakes. I figure it's okay as long as they're not poisonous. My 2yo made friends with every hissing cockroach at the OSU Entomology Department display at the state fair, too!

[Ole Okie]

I remember this dude leaving Broken Arrow at the insistence of the citizens, who were at the time bearing a pot of tar and lots of feathers.

My main fears in my many years living in Oklahoma (last in Broken Arrow, as a matter of fact) were that OU might lose to Texas or Nebraska or some other upstart team. Never occurred to me to be scared of getting eaten by a tiger.